1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermoelectric based heat pumps and refrigerating systems.
2. Related Art
In a recent patent application (Ser. No. 07/626,986 which is incorporated herein by reference), there is described a device in which thermoelectric cells are utilized to greatly increase the thermodynamic efficiency of heat pumps and refrigerators using such cells. The thermal gradient on each cell is very small and the temperature lift achieved by the system is very large. To achieve this it uses a recuperative heat exchanging medium which established the temperature lift in a direction other than the direction of heat flow within the system's thermocouples (usually orthogonal to the heat flow). In that same patent application cylindrical structures were disclosed in which the devices, temperature gradient is along the axis of symmetry while the heat flow and the current driving each thermocouple within the devices are in the radial direction (and thus orthogonal to the axis). Devices where the cylindrical structure's cross section are polygonal rather than circular were disclosed as well.
While the devices described in Patent Application 07/626,986 are ideally suited for withdrawing heat from a small area at the distal end of an elongated tube, or when a number of these devices are assembled to create a refrigerator or heat pump, space utilization is not always optimized due to the radial symmetry of current and heat flow in each thermocouple. Consequently, the space between different devices assembled in parallel may not be optimized.
Furthermore manufacturing the devices from planar sheets of "microthermocouples" that are bent into cylindrical structures may be more costly than the devices of the instant invention.